6 tips to improve your Website Contact Form

The Contact Form on your website is what connects you directly to the user.

It can be a new business opportunity or a sign-up to know more about your company. It can be a customer service question that can turn a bad user experience into a satisfied customer. This is such a valuable gateway between you and the user that we have put together 6 tips to improve your website contact form.

Don’t be greedy when designing forms for your website, it will seriously put people off interacting. You will never know what business was lost due to a sign-up form being too much hassle. Keep it brief asking only for the minimal of information to get a response. You can always ask for additional information in a follow up phone call or email.

Create an element of trust on your website contact form

The visitor has taken that first step at making contact, don’t put them off by asking for too much personal information. Do you really need to know if they are male or female, Mrs or Ms?

Make your form user friendly. Don’t insist on making irrelevant fields mandatory, or that they have to use a space or a dash in a phone number. It’s little things like this that create irritation, not trust. State clearly what will be done with the information, that it won’t be sold or shared with other parties.

Does your contact form needs to serve different types of visitors? Customers to potential customers, job seekers to sales people, you may need specific information to help direct them to the right area of your business. It is critical that you state what you need and why you need it to prevent people abandoning contact due to a confusing website contact form. Try using ghost text in fields to guide users as to what should go there. Or include selection boxes or message subject lines to steer the message to the right department.

Do you use the word ‘Submit’ on your website contact form?

So many do, but oh, what a wasted opportunity. This is a call to action opportunity. The words on the button matter – the more descriptive, the more likely to be clicked. Highlight the benefit to your visitor in the call to action, use strong action words and talk to them directly.

Finally, yet equally important – Don’t let your thank you page be a goodbye page. Your visitors have just completed a form indicating they are interested in your product or service, now is a good time to encourage them to take a subsequent action. This could be offering a discount code, a newsletter sign-up, or simply taking them to your blog page for the latest news. Make the thank you page count and get visitors to stick around a little longer.